title: Rare peptide segments are found significantly more often in proto-oncoproteins than control proteins: implications for immunology and oncology.
abstract: There is some evidence to suggest that peptide segments that are found rarely or never in the host proteome play a role in the immune response to disease-related proteins, both those derived from microbes and those derived from the host itself. We conjecture that this pattern may extend to human proto-oncoproteins. Our hypothesis in this study is that the frequency of rare peptide segments in sets of human proto-oncoproteins is significantly higher than in sets of control proteins, and we show that this is the case. Possible immunological implications of this observation are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Computer Science, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon S7N 5C9, Canada. brt381@mail.usask.ca
authors.forename: Brett
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Trost
authors.forename: Darja
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Kanduc
authors.forename: Anthony
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kusalik
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D007109:Immunity / Q000235:genetics*; D010455:Peptides / Q000235:genetics*; D040901:Proteomics / Q000379:methods; D011518:Proto-Oncogene Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D017385:Sequence Homology
chemical_list: D010455:Peptides; D011518:Proto-Oncogene Proteins